Chuck Crow, The Plain DealerA peach tree grows outside a greenhouse at the Rid-All Green Partnership, an urban farm in the Kinsman neighborhood of Cleveland.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Urban farmers need access to U.S. Agriculture Department credit programs just like their rural counterparts and Congress should accommodate their needs when it crafts the next farm bill, inner-city Cleveland farmer Michael Walton told a House subcommittee on Thursday.

Walton, who runs quarter-acre farms at 79th and Superior, and E. 82nd and Kinsman told the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Domestic Operations, Oversight and Credit, that current farm policies "are not beneficial for urban agriculture."

"Urban farmers are real farmers who can create jobs and grow fresh produce to help our cities," Walton testified. "We need and deserve the same assistance given to rural farmers so we can grow and thrive."

He said access to land and product liability insurance are among the hurdles faced by urban farmers, and it's also difficult for farmers on small plots of land to "create the scale that will generate enough income that we could be legitimately considered a reasonable credit risk."

"We need loans made to farmers collectives or cooperatives so we can purchase and share large tools like tractors," Walton said. "To service large scale customers, we need coolers and storage space and refrigerated trucks that would be too costly for an individual but reasonable for a collective."

The top Democrat on the subcommittee that heard Walton's testimony - Rep. Marcia Fudge of Warrensville Heights - agreed that the committee should consider the needs of non-traditional farmers like Walton when the farm bill is drafted. Urban agricultural producers in the Cleveland area and elsewhere have been frustrated by their lack of access to U.S. Department of Agriculture credit programs, Fudge said.

"Urban farmers are legitimate agricultural producers who happen to live and farm outside of the traditional rural environment," Fudge said. "As we update the Farm Bill, I am urging my colleagues to give serious consideration to the needs of urban farmers. Access to credit can make or break rural farm operations and urban farm operations are no different."

The GOP chairman of the subcommittee, Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, said the hearing was conducted to gather information to help legislators gauge the effectiveness of various farm programs as they prepare to write the next farm bill.

The current farm bill expires on Sept. 30. The Senate Agriculture Committee last month approved its own draft, which would cut spending by $25 billion over the next ten years, diminish subsidy payments and boost new crop insurance programs.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has warned that failure to pass a bill would leave the country without farm support programs and create uncertaingy for farmers.

Fortenberry described farming as "capital-intensive" and said farmers must often apply for large amounts of credits to enter farming or maintain their existing operations.

"Farm equipment can run upwards of half a million dollars," he said. "Combines cost more than most homes. It's cheaper to buy a house on Capitol Hill than it is to buy certain cotton pickers."

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